Ever wonder how to spell esports correctly? – Yes, we already did, but in case you are wondering, here’s how. Let’s break down why there is even an argument over how esports is spelled and why are there so many variations (e-esports, eSports) of the word.
First, lets understand the subject at hand; What is esports? According to Wikipedia, the definition of esports, “short for electronic sports, is a form of competition using video games. Esports often takes the form of organized, multiplayer video game competitions, particularly between professional players, played individually or as teams.”
Essentially esports is just the playing of video games at a highly competitive level. It took off in the late 90’s with games like StarCraft, with players coming together to host LAN parties and compete against each other. Thanks to technological improvements and the Internet esports events are now large-scale and are oftentimes worth millions of dollars.
Having known a little bit about esports it’s time to understand just what the issue is with this esports terminology. Well, it originated from the need for gamers to identify themselves from others.
Now we get the first nugget of the wording problem. Most “e” technologies of the 90s and early 2000s were written with a hyphen. Think e-commerce, e-business, e-mail. Naturally when something was electronic it had an “e-“. Naturally we get “e-sports” for electronic sports. Some years later, a stylized version was created with a capital “S” creating the second way to spell esports as eSports. Both versions were in use all the way until 2017.
From E-Sports, eSports, and ESPORTS, one was destined to stand above the rest, and that came about when the Associated Press unveiled its style guide at the American Copy Editors Society Convention in St. Petersburg, Florida in 2017.
They brought stability to the word’s spelling, and according to the AP Style Guide:
“esports” is the proper spelling according to “industry trends and general usage,” and it should be capitalized if it appears at the start of a sentence. We dropped all hyphens or weird capitalizations (for those wondering “Is esports capitalized?”), and we have ourselves a simple noun.
At the end of it all, in this battle of e-sports or esports, it doesn’t matter how to spell esports, as long as you’re having fun gaming and competing then how to write esports should be the least of your worries. However, if you’re one for correct spelling than the only true way to spell it is just “esports”.
The gaming industry has had its fair share of controversial and political topics surrounding itself over the years. Questions like: “Does gaming make you violent” to “Do gamers have lower brain activity than normal” are still being “debated”. At least the debate over how to properly say esports has been settled.
Read also: Esports History: The Origin of Competitive Gaming
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